Epidural Placement Using Handheld Ultrasound Device vs. Traditional Landmark Palpation

Timely Epidural Placement Using Handheld Ultrasound Device vs. Traditional Landmark Palpation in Parturients With Various Body Mass Indices (BMI): A Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial

Ultrasound is widely in uses for vascular, nerve block and sometimes neuraxial block. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the impact of a handheld ultrasound device on the time to complete labor epidural placement and success rate of epidural analgesia in parturients with a wide range of body mass indexes (BMIs).

A handheld ultrasound device (Accuro, Rhivanna Medical, Charlottesville, VA) may eliminate the time for equipment setup due to its portability and instant power-up. In addition, it provides a simulated diagram to aid in identifying bone and lumbar spaces. These unique features may be helpful in laboring women with a particular BMI range. We aim to define the usefulness of guidance with a handheld ultrasound in completing labor epidural analgesia in various BMIs.

The primary outcome: The time needed to complete epidural placements.

Secondary outcomes:

• The number of needle insertion attempts,
• The rate of success measured by the need to replacements during the labor course for vaginal or cesarean delivery.

Study Overview

• Status: Terminated
• Conditions: Labor Pain
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Ultrasound image guidance; Other: Landmark palpation

Detailed Description

This randomized prospective clinical trial aims to evaluate timing savings in performing labor epidural analgesia and the success rate of labor analgesia with and without the guidance of a handheld ultrasound device in various BMI groups.

In routine clinical setting, patients admitted to clinic and evaluated labor condition. If patient in active labor and request epidural for labor pain, the standard care team inform obstetric anesthesia epidural team by using pager. Standard of care anesthesia epidural team perform preoperative evaluation and placed the catheter.

The patients in active labor will receive labor epidural analgesia, regardless of the study participation. There is no changes epidural local anesthetic type and doses. The research intervention is only placing hand-hold ultrasound to the back of the patient and see the land mark visually before the epidural catheter placement. The remaining catheter placement is the same as the control group.

Study Procedures:

A Total of 300 eligible parturients will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups either the ultrasound imaging guidance or the traditional landmark palpation group for labor epidural needle placement. The research intervention is simply placing a hand-held ultrasound device on the back of the patient and insert the epidural needle with ultrasound image guidance.

Parturient will receive epidural catheter regardless of the study participation. In the traditional landmark method, anesthetist palpates the structure to determine the site of the initial needle insertion site. The needle will be protruded as in usual standard practice. Anesthetist may remove and insert needle again until feeling epidural space. When anesthetist determine the tip of the needle is in the epidural space, the epidural catheter will be protruded through the needle.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 74
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Dallas, Texas, United States, 75390
      • Parkland Health Hospital System

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 50 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 18-50 years
• Parturient in active labor and desires labor epidural for pain relief.
• American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Class I, 2 and 3 parturients, which include normal parturients
• Parturients with morbidities (including obesity) that are not life-threatening,
• Parturient BMI ≥ 25

Exclusion Criteria:

• History of scoliosis or back surgery
• Patient refusal
• Patient with elevated intracranial pressure
• Any patient with a contraindication for placement of epidural anesthesia, including infection at needle insertion site, or coagulopathy.
• ASA Class 4

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Ultrasound imaging guidance; Determination of epidural needle site by using ultrasound guidance	Other: Ultrasound image guidance; Epidural landmarks will be determined with using ultrasound image
Active Comparator: Traditional landmark palpation; Depermination of epidural needle site by using traditional landmark method	Other: Landmark palpation; Epidural landmarks will be determined with palpation; Other Names: Determination of epidural lanmakrks with palpation

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
The time needed to complete epidural placements	The number of removal and insertion of the epidural needle until feeling epidural space.	Within 10 minutes during epidural needle placement

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
The number of needle insertion attempts	The epidural needle insertion attempts	Within 10 minutes during epidural needle placement

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
• Investigators: Study Director: Seema Dave, MPH, UT Southwestern Medical Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 28, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 23, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): March 23, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 12, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 12, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): July 15, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 1, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 27, 2022
• Last Verified: May 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Labor Pain
• Other Study ID Numbers: STU-2019-0571

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No